Let´s Start at the Very Beggining, a Very Good Place to Start

I´ve been here two weeks already. On the one hand that hardly seems possible, and on the other I have been doing so many things...
Well a whole month has passed since I started this blog entry. I really had high hopes of being good about blogging frequently. I have had so much to write about but I have not been taking the time. I have been working like crazy between leading and planning delegations. It seems so strange on the one hand that a month and a half has gone by - that is more than half the time I was here this summer - and on the other Christmas break feels so long ago.
While, as the title suggests, let´s start at the very beggining... hopefully that starts a song going in your head :) and then we will see where I go from there and I will try to be more consistent or perhaps better said, more frequent... if there is a large lag time again, please check out my blog from this summer; http://www.crispaz.org/vol/sip/sip_2007.htm

arrival

Flying into San Salvador did not feel very real. I knew that I was on my way back, but it did not really seem possible or likely; it had only registered at the surface level. To me it seemed like I was just on another airplane. What with flying back and forth to school each semester and the traveling that I have done, I have been on more than my fair share of them.
Upon landing it started to sink in slightly, soon I would be seeing Tedde waiting for me. Walking through the airport I remembered the last time I had been there, with Judith, Michael, and Amanda, buying quesadillas and cookies at a pastry shop right before our flight started boarding. I was going back to the place I had been this summer, the first time that I have returned to one of the other countries I have been to - well except Nicaragua, but the first time I was there I was only three months old and I do not think we were there for very long.
Nearly everyone on the flight seemed to be a Salvadoran citizen and I felt rather alone waiting in the migration line. Fortunately the man at the counter gave me my three months tourist visa without too much hassle. Apparently it can be pretty tricky. Nothing compared to getting into the U.S. of course, but far from smooth and easy. The process for getting residency even more so.
The warm air enveloped me as I gathered my luggage and headed toward the door. Swarms of Salvadorans gathered around the roped off exit aisle, awaiting the arrival of relatives and a Salvadoran band that had played at the Rose Parade in L.A. As I hurried forward I suddenly heard my name and looked up to see Sally, our SIPPIE coordinator this summer, who had taken over communications while we were there. Sally with her long dark hair, nonchalant manner, and Californian slang. I lit up and ran to hug her. Tedde and two of Sally{s Salvadoran friends were waiting with the good old beat up white stick shift Crispaz truck. Sally had on a beanie cap and a fleece and Tedde a sweatshirt. While the weather felt warm for me after the 30s and 40s in Oregon and the artificially chilled planes, to them it was the tail end of a cold spell with bitter winds.
Arriving at the office felt surreal, but also like greeting an old friend. Seeing the familiar posters of Romero, of Salvadoran children, of anti-Cafta and sustainable living statements and the peace cranes I had made for all those who worked at the office and that I had made with Eli and Perdomo excitement rose in me and I finally felt like I knew where I was, I finally felt that I had arrived.

orientation, orientation, orientation

Seeing everyone again that first weekend, Sally, Tedde, Sue, Isai, Tom and Melissa, was pure bliss. I slept terribly that first night and felt exhausted but filled with joy and wonder to see, to talk with, to fix dinner, and sit around and laugh with Sue, Isai, Tom, and Melissa. Tom and Melissa are volunteers who live in the campo and are just a dear pair for joking and laughing as well as serious conversations. Sue is also a delegation leader and one of the funniest people I have ever met; she has a real gift for making people laugh, sometimes, I think, greater than even she realizes.
Then once Monday hit everything was go go go and I could hardly stay awake for it - meetings, meetings, meetings, and orientation for this that and the other thing, organization history, country/culture orientation, security/emergencies, and to my actual job as an intern. With the first team meeting on Tuesday, Laura, a new volunteer going through orientation with me, and I also got our first introduction to staff politics with the first team meeting. Wednesday Sue got sick and I had hospital orientation along with a view into finding a delegation leader at the last minute when someone gets sick and there are two delegations coming the next day... a scramble that Tedde managed very calmly despite it all. I know that is not how she felt inside but she is good at pretending and at pulling things together.
Thursday I started my first delegation... a training delegation with Tedde.